Wednesday, February 28, 2007

My Top 10 songs

Yep, I've been tagged yet again this time by my mate Gazza ! Why does this keep happening to me, I am not sure ! Am I that much of an easy target ? No really I love this ! :D Anyway enough blabbing ! :P

Here are my top 10 songs:

10 - Champagne High by Sister Hazel: Brings tears into my eyes because it reminds me of my University years at Edinburgh
9 - Heaven by Bryan Adams: You can't beat that for a love song ! ;)
8 - Summer of 69 by Bryan Adams: Reminds me of my high schools days.
7 - Loser by 3 Doors Down: No reason just love this song :D
6 - Photograph by Def Leopard: 1st concert I went to in the UK was def leopards and this song was just CLASS ! B)
5 - Sultans of Swing by The Dire Straights: Great song to pump you up for a night out !
4 - Living on a prayer by Bonjovi: Again another party song for moi ! Keeps me going on all night
3 - Inside us all by Creed: Shame they split ! :(
2 - Billie Jean by Micheal Jackson: What list would be complete without it ?
1 - Broken Wings by Alter Bridge: I love this song, listen to on and on but never got bored of it !

Ok then, I tag:
Gazza
tooners
Hashim
Still Breathing

Now thats a tag list, we've got the taxi driver, the new mommy, the music composer and the bio student :P :D Waiting for the interesting lists ;)
ٌ

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Tuesday, February 20, 2007

To Sir, with Love

The Future is for those who believe in their dreams, these words, I got quite attached to ever since I first heard them. One of my lecturers at James Watt College (Mr. George Campbell) once told me "At the end of the day son, you'll be what ever you want, the future is for those who believe in their dreams" and ever since these words became my moto. He said do you have a dream for the future ? Do you imagine yourself in certain place ? a certain career position ? if yes, then you have to believe in the beauty of your dream, you have to believe that you will achieve this dream someday.

Never have negative thoughts and always have beautiful positive ones. Everyday take steps towards your dreams, don't believe in them for the sake of it ! Work towards them for there is no point of setting them and hoping for the best ! Make them realistic and you'll be something son. These words still ring in my ears as if I've just heard them. George, sir, I would always be grateful for all the things you taught me and for the role you played in forming my personality !

Gaffer, I owe you loads and will always miss you, I will always be grateful to you sir and will forever have trouble finding the right words to thank you.

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Friday, February 16, 2007

Contrasting Dining Experiences!!!

Well as the saying goes: “You get what you pay for”, but sometimes, that’s simply not the case. I’ve got two stories that highlight this point, a British one and an American one.

I’ve always been a critic of the restaurant service here in the UK and in general, I think it’s really poor compared to other countries. Moe, I don’t need to remind you of the steaks we had in Telford.

Anyways, recently I went out with a colleague from work and she suggested we go to Browns just off new bond street, which was perfect as it’s less than 2 minutes walk from work. We go in and ask for a table for two. We went a bit early, 12.15 so it was empty at the time with only a few people. We were directed to the dining area and it was empty with only 2 people sitting at one table. Out of all the tables available, he pointed us to the one right next to those 2 people (around 30 cm apart). I just cracked up and moved to another table. You must be kidding me…. Reminds me of one time when I went to a restaurant and it was absolutely empty and they asked if we had a reservation.

We sat down, ordered drinks and started studying the menu. I ordered a starter and the main course but my colleague wasn’t sure so we told the girl to come back. We called her again but yet again my friend wasn’t sure so we told her, bare with us for a minute. She went and then I waved at her and she totally ignored us. After a few minutes she showed up. She was pretending to be nice but we weren’t falling for it. Anyways, food was ordered and the starter showed up.

While we were eating the starter, the place started getting packed until it was full. We finished the starter, had a chat and kept waiting for the main course. I started to notice that the people who showed up 30 minutes after us had already received their dishes, so I called the waiter. Politely, I told him what’s taking so long, we were here before everyone but we still haven’t received our main dishes. Sarcastically, he (same guy who was responsible for seating us) said that all those people are eating their starters and that ours take a while to prepare, so we have to wait more. I laughed and told him, “Since when is Fish and Chips a starter??? Please go check the food”. I kid you not, less than 15 seconds later, the food was on the table.

Once we were done, the guy comes over and takes the dishes and asks if we fancy coffee and deserts. I told him, “No thanks, I fancy the bill more, so please get it”. We were going to pay by 2 cards so he brought the machine and it was my turn first. Half went on my card and that was fine. I verified my pin code and got the receipt. Now it was my colleagues turn. The guy set it up and left. It has an option to add a gratuity, which we obviously put 0. I wish they had a comments section, would’ve been happy to write something nice. Anyways, we got to the payment and we notice that the guy did not put half the price but rather the full amount so we cancelled the transaction. When he came back, without even asking, the first thing he said was, “YOU CANCELLED THE TRANSACTION”. We’re both like, “Ya, we don’t want to pay you 150%, check before you talk”. We took our receipt and just walked away.

One thing for sure, I’m not going back to that place again. It was an experience though, one that makes me laugh.


Over to the American story. This one is rather funny and just demonstrates the opposite. Around 3 months ago, we were just outside Philadelphia in the King of Prussia mall. We went to this restaurant for dinner. Initially we were 6 people. We ordered drinks and sat down to talk. Later on, other colleagues from work show up (by coincidence) and I told the waitress, let’s set up a big table so that we can all sit together. We ended up being 22 people.

Anyways, the lady offered to take our drinks over to the other table and I told her jokingly to not worry about my drink as I don’t want to torture her by letting her carry it. Anyways I got up and was talking with my friends and suddenly I just turned not knowing the waitress was right behind me. Well, to my embarrassment, I elbowed the tray with the drinks and showered her top to bottom in front of the manager. Besides being lost temporarily for words, I apologized and said that I’ll pay for them. Both the manager and the waitress were like, “Don’t dare you say that. There’s no way you’re paying for this. We’ll get you new ones right away”. Mind you, these drinks were worth around $40. Anyways, we were all laughing because I actually did end up torturing her, not technically hehe. Now this is why you end up tipping them in the first place.

I can go on for a long time about all the restaurant stories, but it just shows you that in a lot of cases, you’ll either get way less than what you bargained for, or way more.

If you do have any funny restaurant stories, do share them :).

Monday, February 12, 2007

Happy Birthday Moe!!!!!

Just wanted to say Happy 26th Birthday Moe, hope this year would bring you happiness, prosperity, craziness and who knows, something significant, you and I know what it could be, well 2 things hehe. Since am not in Bahrain, you know how we'll chill ;). Have fun with the guys and ya, you're stuff is on the way :D.

Thursday, February 08, 2007

5 Things You Don't Know About Me !

OK, so I've been tagged by "still breathing" to join her in a post chain, about 5 things that bloggers doesn't know about you, so here goes:

1- I am awful at multitasking ! Can NOT and will NOT do, concentrate or think of two things at the same time or period !

2- I have a burn scar on my left hand, had it ever since I was a toddler.

3- I had 5 operations (stitches) on my lower lip due to a veriaty of accedents ! For some reason I kept injuring this part of my body growing up ! :D

4- I am addicted to all coffees, you name 'em I'll drink 'em !

5- I am Liverpool FC mad, to the extent of stopping everything in my life when they are playing ! I mean the house could be on fire for all that I care, but if the reds are playing, I won't move.

OK, now that the grilling is done, I tag:

Gazza
Hashim
amoontie
Lorena

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Saturday, February 03, 2007

Body parts and evil backs

These days, I keep getting quite funny back pains and because we have a history of back injuries in the family one minor and one is severe (Khalid and His dad) I was hit with a panic attack ! Thinking oh god I am getting an operation on my back ! :D


You see, we all think that the various parts of our bodies are all on the same team. Not true. Your back, for example, hates your guts. yes it does !

The way you can tell that your back is evil is that it never warns you when it’s about to give you a painful, life altering sprain that will make you envy the dead, especially those with good backs.

Your back accumulates and stores slight injustices in the same way a camel’s hump stores water. Then your treacherous back watches and waits for the right opportunity to strike.

If you have ever had a severe back sprain, you can answer the following quiz with no problem. Which activity is most likely to result in the worst back pain of your life?

A. Skiing to outrace that good looking chick.
B. Lifting a car to save a baby
C. Kickboxing competition
D. Bending over to pick up a piece of Pringles you spit out while laughing at your own joke

The last thing that your back wants is for you to have an excellent story to divert you of some of your discomfort. Your back will not be happy until you are not only painfully weak but also a pathetic boring person in the eyes of others.

Other Person: “So, how did you end up in the full body cast?”

You: “Well, it’s a funny story. I was tying my shoe.”

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Thursday, February 01, 2007

Keep a 1000 or give it back?

Here’s a sneaky question for yous. It should be a real eyeopener. So here goes:

“Suppose you found 1000 dinars (1345 UK pounds) in cash that you knew had been lost by a billionaire. Now, let’s assume that the billionaire would never be aware that he lost it, and there would be no way that anyone else would know if you kept the money. And let’s say you knew there would be no reward or other indirect benefit in returning the money. Would you give it back?” ;)

If you ask this question in a group, I assure you that a lot of people would say they’d give it back. But if you ask people privately, you might be surprised to discover how many of your mates are infact cunning thieves. :D

In my experience, most of the people who say they’d give back the cash are the ones who don’t need an extra thousand dinars "So basically I haven't found a mate who said no, scary huh ?". And the ones who say they’d keep it, all had a good idea of how they’d spend it. :D

So what do you all think ? Keep or give back ?

Penny for your thoughts :) ;) I'll tell you what I'd do in the end ! :P

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